Dead Man's Folly
by inu runner
Summary: Controlled by his father his entire life, Sesshomaru is forced to return to the place where his life almost ended years before. There he meets people that help him realize that life is too precious to squander and that love really can save you. SessXKag.


1**Dead Man's Folly**

_Father & Sons_

The little fire spurted gold coins of light as the tiny flames rose heavenward. The chill of

the night air did not intimidate the crickets from singing their endless song of mourning

and regret as an owl hooted in the distant trees.

If anyone had come upon this scene this very night they would have just witnessed three

cold, unruly men warming their hands by their small fire.

No one would have ever suspected what they were plotting.

No. These were not ordinary men, and this was no ordinary night. This was the night

that the murder of Sesshomaru Takashi was planned.

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Long fingers worked their way through silver hair.

Tired, frustrated, and utterly bored with life Sesshomaru rocked back and forth in his

swivel chair, staring at the business report that flickered on the screen as he typed.

He jumped at the touch of a hand on his shoulder.

Cursing loudly at his younger half-brother's triumphant smirk Sesshomaru had a sinking

feeling in his stomach. He knew what this feeling was. It was the sensation that he

experienced before everything would always go terribly wrong in his life.

He was no fool to this sensation. It had happened many times throughout his life.

It had happened the day his mother had left his father. It had happened the day he had

almost died in a terrible plain crash and had lost his left arm. It had happened when he

was not able to be an author anymore because his creative juices had suddenly run out. It

had happened when Kagura, his ex-wife, had left him for another man. And now it was

happening again.

Sesshomaru sighed. Life certainly sucked for him.

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Sesshomaru had tuned Inuyasha out, but now, wondering what his half-brother wanted of

him, he started to listen.

"Ha, ha!" his brother was still laughing, now almost on the verge of tears. "Scared ya

there didn't I!"

Resisting the urge to strangle his half-brother till he turned blue, rip his talkative tongue

out of his smirking mouth, and then castrate him, Sesshomaru merely rose from his chair

and grabbed his jacket.

"What does father want." More of a statement than a question, now it was Sesshomaru's

turn to be pleased with himself as his words wiped the stupid smirk off of Inuyasha's

face.

Now it was his half-brother's turn to frown and look puzzled.

"How did you know father wanted you?"

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Strolling from his office he walked side by side with his half-brother. Ignoring the stares

of the female population that worked for his father's company, the brothers deftly made

their way to their father's secretary without having a perfumed love note or pair of

panties tucked into their pockets by these men deprived women.

_Although, working in a business predominately run by women does have its quirks, _

Sesshomaru thought as a woman in a skimpy skirt and shirt that barely covered her

bosom walked by. Giving her employer a shy smile he smirked at her in return. The

woman blushed and turned quickly away from him, her skirt flinging up in the process

and revealing a delightful pair of underwear.

"Mr. Tayotomi will be with you in a minuet," the dull voice of Kikyo, his father's

secretary, said.

Sesshomaru sat in one of the waiting chairs and tried not to laugh as his half-brother

pathetically flirted with an uninterested Kikyo.

Leaning his head against the wall he barely heard the automatic doors to his father's

Office open and welcome him in with their metallic logos that read, _Tayotomi and Sons _

_Inc._

_What a joke, _Sesshomaru's brain goateed over the signs.

Ask anyone in the company and you would specifically hear that it was Inu-Tasho who

ran his company with an iron fist, not his two sons Sesshomaru and Inuyasha. One of

them too depressed with life to care, and the other too irresponsible to trust.

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Inu-Tasho greeted his son with a wave of his hand as he beaconed for Sesshomaru to sit

down as his father finished a conference call.

Deciding to push the limits as far as he could, Sesshomaru stood.

His father finally finished his call and then stared his son down. Sesshomaru fidgeted as

he met his father's frosty stare. Feeling like his knees were about to collapse from an

unknown weight that was pushing him down, Sesshomaru finally took a seat.

His father was the only person that had ever been able to intimidate him

"What do you want father?" the question came out in an angry snap that he soon regretted

as the vein on his father's temple throbbed in anger.

He breathed out a breath in relief as his father let his attitude slide and did not reprimand

him.

Glancing at his desk Inu-Tasho pulled a small pamphlet from inside a drawer and handed

it across the desk to his son. Sesshomaru, taking the pamphlet and crisply flipping

through it snorted at the pictures of country scenes and small barn houses, cottages, and

ponds that littered the pages.

Taking notice of his son's snort and displeasure in the pictures, Inu-Tasho now took the

time to voice why he had called his oldest son to him in the first place. "I want you to go

there." He shook his as Sesshomaru skeptically raised an eyebrow.

"Why not send Inuyasha?"

"Because he is too irresponsible to do what I want."

"Which is?"

"My aunt, your great aunt, has recently passed away. She left this old dump to no one

because she foolishly made no will. I want you to go there and check out the condition of

the property… maybe see how many Swiss chalets will fit on her property. Anyway,"

Inu-Tasho tried to put on a fatherly tone, but failed, "I think you should take a break."

"Why don't you just hire some surveyor for yourself… that would be more accurate. Or,

better yet, why not go yourself and take the much needed break that you deserve father."

Inu-Tasho resisted the urge to yell at his son's condescending tones as Sesshomaru

looked innocently back at his father and then glared. Irritation and displeasure radiated

from the father and son as they locked eyes.

"Because this company would be in ruins if I left," Inu-Tasho managed to bite out at his

son as a faint look of hurt crossed his son's cold mask of a face. "Now, you can take one

of the company cars, but I expect you and the car back by next week."

Sesshomaru rose and shook his father's outstretched hand. Taking the keys to the

Mercedes that the "company," which actually meant his father, was going to provide him

with.

Relieved to at least have a change in scenery, Sesshomaru took one last flip through the

collage of pictures that his father had given him.

"It doesn't say what this place is called."

"Dead Man's Folly."

"Excuse me?" Sesshomaru was sure he had misunderstood his father. _This couldn't be _

_the same place… could it?_

"The place is called Dead Man's Folly and yes, it is the place where you had that plane

crash."

His father tried to avert his eyes as his son stared his left arm, or at least, where his left

arm should have been. Loose fabric hung where his son's arm should have been.

Sesshomaru slammed the pictures back onto his father's desk and glared at him with a

cold anger that he had not felt in many years. "Why do you wish for me to go back!

Why do you want me to go to that damned place where I almost damn near died."

Inu-Tasho would not look at his son. "I just want you to find some peace," he was trying

to be the good father, and failing as miserably as he possibly could.

"Peace? PEACE?" he knew his voice was on the edge of hysteria, but he did not care.

He was too livid and offend by his father to care that his cool composure had just

shattered and fallen away to reveal a very frazzled Sesshomaru. "This is the place where

my life almost ended… and now you want me to go back to get what… closure?"

Tuning out his father Sesshomaru walked from his father office and out of the building.

Indignation and anger radiated from him.

_I almost died that day, _his bitter thoughts made him want to punch something, anything,

someone, namely his father. But the old bastard had always been smarter and quicker

than him.

_What kind of father do I have?_

Sesshomaru already knew the answer: an ambitious, self-centered, power hungry oldman

that did not care whose life he ruined as long as his business prospered. _And that _

_includes my mother's life, _he added to the list of reasons why he despised his father.

Unlocking the Mercedes he got in and signed. _I'll never be like him._

**Hello everyone! Please review and tell me what you think of my newest story!**


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